Jignesh Shah moves HC against FMC order

Joseph Massey, Shreekant Javalgekar also challenge regulator's diktat on 'fit and proper' status

Financial Technologies’ chairman Jignesh Shah, along with Joseph Massey and Shreekant Javalgekar, moved the high court here on Thursday against the Forward Markets Commission order of December 17, declaring them not “fit and proper” as board members of the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). The matter has been posted for hearing on January 6.

In its order, FMC, which went into the running of the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) following the payment default of Rs 5,600 crore to investors, said Shah was “practically the highest beneficiary of the fraud perpetrated at the NSEL”.

Massey was denied the “fit and proper” status as he was on the board of directors since the inception of NSEL. He was also held responsible for the poor governance, fraudulent activities and mismanagement there, and for not making any efforts to improve the management of the spot exchange. And, FMC said, Javalgekar was aware of the state of affairs in NSEL.  

FT has already asked the HC to quash the FMC order, which held the entity, too, was not “fit and proper” to hold anything more than two per cent shareholding in MCX. FTIL holds 26 per cent stake in MCX.